Rampage Suspect Caught in Sacramento

Aug. 30, 2001 -- Nikolay Soltys, the Ukrainian immigrant wanted in the brutal slayings of six family members, was captured today without incident after sheriff's deputies found him hiding under a desk in his mother's back yard in a Sacramento, Calif., suburb.

Officers grabbed the fugitive at about 8 a.m. local time after Soltys' brother, Stepan, called 911, sheriff's officials said. A knife "consistent with" the alleged murder weapon was found in a backpack Soltys had been carrying, said Sacramento County Sheriff Lou Blanas.

A 10-day nationwide manhunt came to an end today when a round-the-clock surveillance team saw several family members flee Soltys' mother's home to a nearby retail store at about at 7:45 a.m. in the suburb of Citrus Heights, said arresting officer Sgt. Virgil Brown of the Sacramento Police Department.

After Stepan called 911 from the store, the surveillance team immediately set up a perimeter around the home and dozens of officers descended in two teams. The arresting officers said they saw Soltys' feet sticking out from under a desk in the yard and approached him.

At first, Soltys tried to flee, said Sheriff's Detective Chris Joachim, but the open door of an old refrigerator prevented him from escaping the small back yard, and he was apprehended. "It wasn't a very good hiding place," Joachim said.

Soltys was being questioned at the Sheriff's Department and was expected to be booked in the stabbing deaths of his wife, 3-year-old son, aunt, uncle and two young cousins, and held at the Sacramento County Jail. In a press conference held this evening, Soltys' relative Boris Kukharskiy spoke on the family's behalf through an interpreter and thanked those who have supported them throughout their ordeal.

"He wants to thank everybody who was so feeling to their grief," interpreter Paul Sweeney said. "You know what happened in our family. He thanks God that God give him so many friends here that basically helped them a lot and supported them during this grief."

Soltys Had Potato Peeler and Map

Dirty, disheveled and barefoot, the fugitive was found wearing a navy blue T-shirt with yellow writing and dark-colored jogging pants. Officers found a 4- to 5-inch metal potato peeler on him, as well as a folded-up map, they said. A backpack found near the desk contained a sleeping bag, a soda bottle and the knife, the officers said.

Officials said they did not yet know how Soltys stayed in hiding for so long despite national media coverage of the slayings and his disappearance. But based on his ragged appearance, Blanas said, it appeared Soltys had not been harbored by anyone.

"He's tired and run down, he has clothing under the clothes he has on, and it appears he's been living outside for some time," Blanas said, adding that it looked like Soltys has three or four days of facial hair growth.

The suspect may have camped out in a wooded area north of where he was captured, officials believe. Even if the fugitive spent the last several days near his mother's house, though, it still does not explain how he got there from the location about a half-dozen miles away where he abandoned the car he was driving on the day of the rampage.

May Have Sneaked in at Night

Several local, state and federal law enforcement agencies had been scouring the Sacramento area for days looking for Soltys. His relatives had been under heavy police protection since the slayings.

Police gave Soltys' mother, brother, his wife and two juvenile relatives, who had been staying in the suspect's mother's house, panic buttons and cell phones to call 911 in the event Soltys turned up. It was unclear why they left the home to alert police instead of using that equipment.

Soltys may have snuck into his mother's back yard during the night, despite the six-member surveillance team parked outside. "At night, there are so many ways to get into the back yard, you can't cover every inch," Blanas said.

Soltys made the FBI's 10 Most Wanted list, and the case was featured on the television program America's Most Wanted. A reward of $120,000 was posted for his arrest, but it is unclear whether Soltys' family members will receive the money.

Soltys allegedly slashed the throats of his family members on Aug. 20 in a killing spree that lasted several hours and led police on a gruesome search for victims throughout the area.

No Green Ford Explorer?

Police believe Soltys stabbed his 23-year-old pregnant wife Lyubov to death on the morning of Aug. 20, then drove to another home where he stabbed and killed his 9-year-old nephew, his 9-year-old niece and his aunt and uncle.

Soltys changed his bloody clothes and went to his mother's house, according to investigators. He picked up his 3-year-old son, who was later found dead in a cardboard box.

Pictures with notes scrawled on the back in Soltys' abandoned silver 1995 Nissan Altima led police to the boy's body and gave a hint to a motive for the killings — that Soltys believed his family members "spoke out" on too many topics, police said.

In the days since the slayings, police fielded reported sightings of Soltys in North Carolina, Tennessee and Oregon. But law enforcement officials primarily focused their search in the Sacramento area.

At one point, police believed Soltys was driving an emerald green mid-1990s Ford Explorer after he ditched his Nissan, but said today they don't believe he ever drove such a vehicle.